248 AMERICAN HONEY PLANTS 



conditions as will sweet clover. It will succeed under unfavorable condi- 

 tions on the heaviest clays and on light sand. It will grow on hardpan 

 and on gravelly and stony land unsuited for general cultivation. It does 

 well on soils too wet for either alfalfa or red clover and on soils so dry 

 that neither of these will succeed. It will grow on land so poor and devoid 

 of humus that no other clover or grass will grow. It is the greatest soil 

 builder known, and now that the public has finally accepted the fact that 

 it is not a noxious weed, it will shortly be used to redeem untold thou- 

 sands of acres of otherwise waste land. It grows all the way from sea 

 level to the mountain sides, and is spreading in the semi-arid sections of 

 Colorado and other Western States, where the annual rainfall is very light. 



In the October, 1917, number of the American Bee Journal has been 

 told the story of the sweet clover region of Alabama and Mississippi. In 

 those States sweet clover has spread over thousands of acres of land which 

 had been abandoned for agricultural purposes ; and it is not only furnish- 

 ing abundant pasturage to the bees, but is restoring the fertility of these 

 worn-out plantations. 



The growth of the plant, however, is no longer confined to the road- 

 sides and worn-out fields, but farmers are growing it successfully and 

 profitably on lands worth $300 per acre in Iowa and Illinois, because it 

 pays them to do so. In some cases the railroad companies have discov- 

 ered that sweet clover growing along the right of way is the best possi- 

 ble insurance against erosion of the roadbed. A heavy growth of sweet 

 clover protects the banks from the washing of heavy rains, as no other 

 plant will do. In places, one can see a continuous strip of sweet clover 

 for miles and miles along the railroads. It would seem the part of wis- 

 dom for the beekeepers' associations to bring this fact to the attention of 

 the men in charge of keeping the lines in repair wherever possible. Once 

 established along the railroads, it is bound to spread more or less along 

 the byroads and into the fields, thus increasing the supply of forage within 

 reach of the bees. 



One of the most useful purposes which sweet clover serves is to 

 smother out obnoxious weeds. So persistent is the plant where sowed in 

 waste places that there are few weeds which can compete with it. Where 

 bad weeds are present in old lots, along roadsides, etc., the easiest way to 

 eradicate them is by sowing sweet clover freely. Within a few years the 

 sweet clover will generally crowd them out. In spite of this fact, sweet 

 clover itself is one of the easiest plants to destroy. Since it only lives two 

 years and must come again from the seed after that time, all that is neces- 

 sary to clear the ground of sweet clover is to cut it low when in blossom 

 and before the seeds are formed. 



Where there is difficulty in establishing alfalfa, sweet clover is often 

 grown in advance to establish the nitrogen-gathering bacteria, which are 

 peculiar to the leguminous plants. Following sweet clover, there is usually 

 little difficulty in getting the alfalfa to grow, if the seed bed is carefully 

 prepared. ^However, many farmers who have been growing both plants, are 

 of the opinion that sweet clover is the more profitable of the two, and that 

 it can be handled successfully with less difficulty. 



